The Sky Is Gray

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about racial segregation in the 1950s?

Teaching Suggestion: To understand the subtle hints Gaines uses to build James’s world, an ability to see the signs of segregation is important. Students likely know about segregation, but the atmosphere of fear segregation created within the black community in the south is harder to imagine, and is woven deeply into this story.

• "Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation in America" – a GPB Education mini documentary that explains the genesis and impact of racial segregation in America
• "Housing Segregation and Redlining in America" – NPR’s exposé on the housing segregation that still impacts black Americans today. *Note: The video starts with a Chris Rock joke in which he uses an expletive. Skip over the first minute if this joke is too controversial for the classroom.

2. What do you know about the psychological effects of poverty?

Teaching Suggestion: This question is important to the story because it is not simply that James and his mother live in a segregated environment—they also live in poverty. This intersection of race, family, and poverty is important to the story. Please note that this question can elicit vastly different responses depending on the demographic of the students in the classroom, and should be handled gently and with empathy.

• "The Psychological Consequences of Poverty" – a TED Talk by a Princeton University professor who describes the neurological impacts of a brain affected by poverty
• "Could Poverty Inspire Art?" – a video that analyzes the ways in which art has tried to portray, analyze, or romanticize poverty

Short Activity

Ernest J. Gaines is known for depicting the intersections of race, poverty, and family in the South. Conduct a brief research project in which you develop a biography of Gaines and his literary impact. Work in groups to research and create a collage (either paper or virtual, such as on a Jam Board or a PowerPoint slide) that visually depicts the impact of Gaines’s work.

Teaching Suggestion: Presentations can be displayed or presented, though students will likely formulate similar responses within this activity. Gaines has a specific voice and focus on rural segregated life in black America, so an emphasis on understanding his unique contribution to American literature is important.

• "A Conversation with Ernest J. Gaines" – an interview with Gaines on his beginnings as a writer and his passion for the power of the written word